Diablo III Beta in Q3, "Driving Hard" for 2011 Launch

Activision Blizzard's Q1 Earnings Report is now available, showing higher than expected earnings and revenue. As noted on Blizzplanet, the company also used their post-earnings conference call to announce that external beta testing of Diablo III will begin in the third quarter of this year, and though they still aren't setting an official release date for the action/RPG sequel, one slide states: "Do not have an official release date or window yet, but driving hard to launch Diablo III this year." Here's word on the company's financial reporting: "Net income for the first three months of the year was $503 million, or 42 cents per share. That's up 32 percent from $381 million, or 30 cents per share, a year ago. Activision's revenue grew 11 percent to $1.45 billion from $1.31 billion. Besides the latest 'Call of Duty' and related digital content, the online game 'World of Warcraft' did well. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $156 million, or 13 cents per share, surpassing the 8 cents that analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. Adjusted revenue was $755 million, well above analysts' expectations of $665 million. The results were also ahead of the forecast the company gave in February."